Cosmati Blue - Stamp Collage fun and fabric design, inspired by Roman Cosmati floors

Cosmati red - a commission

Having enjoyed  completing a commission  on a theme of circles, inspired by the Cosmati floors of Rome,I made another piece along similar lines, but in different colours and a slightly different format.
The recipient of the original piece was very pleased with the choice of colours  used to make the first collage, as they were among her favourites. My  preferred colours  are blues, greens and turquoise shades so I've had great fun making a piece which I eventually hope to have printed in cotton fabric. I've found a wonderful fabric printing site, wovenmonkey.com where you can have your own designs printed on various types of cotton fabric, to the size that works best for your own design.   You can see this design below at Gloucester Guildhall from 2nd to 30th October as it is part of my  new Stamping Ground 2 exhibition. 

Cosmati Blue

Fat Margaret Tower - Tallinn's Maritime Museum - an Estonian treasure

We visited  Estonia's Maritime Museum in 2017 but it is now closed for renovations until 2019. Fat Margaret, as the Medieval artillery Tower is know is the widest tower  in the city with walls up to 5 metres thick. It was completed in 1531. Some of the city's towers  can be climbed, and you can walk along certain stretches of the ramparts  and even have a coffee and cake at high altitude at the Neitsitorn Museum cafe, accessed via a very steep staircase. Beware the high cost, although the leaflet  does justifies it by saying that the tower has "breath-taking views of the Old Town, which is true!

Barquentine Estonia

The Nekmanngrund  - lightship

Maritime Museums always hold a great fascination for me with my love of making collages with ships as a subject,  and this one has more than 100 model ships,  with interesting stories to tell, no doubt,  if only I could have understood the language. Picked up a few leaflets and took many photographs of the models to keep for future research into subjects for stamp collages. A year later, and I still haven't made any ships based on any of these, but it's never too late.  The Don Fernando e Gloria, seen in Lisbon's Maritime museum the year before, has now been portrayed in a collage, and will be on show at my latest exhibition in The Guildhall, Gloucester, from 2nd - 30th October 2018.

The website www.fatmargarettower.com does provide some more information in English and other languages.  There are ships to visit in connection with the museum, but for us, time did not permit this time round!

Lucy Stone - 1818-1893 - an American Suffragist,Abolitionist and Orator - and on an American stamp

Listening to Radio 4 Woman's Hour today, 26th September,  I heard for the first time, the story of Lucy Stone. (You can "Listen again" online.)   Her name immediately brought  to mind  a 50c Magenta stamp with the name Lucy Stone on it, with a portrait of a strong and determined looking woman.
  I had seen this stamp many times in the boxes of  American stamps that I have and which I trawl through to find suitable stamps for  collages.I often get sidetracked by picking out random stamps and looking them up to find out more, but had not done this in the case of Lucy Stone, but Woman's Hour did this for me today!   A campaigner for the rights of women, abolition of slavery and equality for those of other races and religions, she was also the first woman from Massachusetts to gain a college degree. It's interesting to note that this stamp is from the series, Prominent Americans, issued between 1965-8 and that she's the only woman included in the series.!!  Famous men in the series include several Presidents, Architect  Frank Lloyd Wright, Historian Francis Parkman and Henry Ford.  One of the questions asked of USA citizens interviewed recently in  2018,  the 200th anniversary of her birth,  was "What would she think of today's America", and replies varied. She would have been pleased to have seen the first Black president, but would  be dismayed at the inequalities that still exist.

People on stamps take up new roles in my Stamp Collage pictures

Fisherman near Naples

Car worker in Turin

I always like to make connections between my work as a Stamp Collage artist and the content of the stamps I'm using in my pictures. (The less than perfect specimen on the right, which would not appeal to a serious collector, would be a prime candidate for future work  as I prefer not to use stamps in top condition.)   I  use stamps with people on to form crews and passengers on ships, and  for "peopling" a landscape or crowd. Some stamps spring easily to mind, including this series of 17 stamps issued in Italy in 1950  known as Italia al lavoro  or Italy at Work.   Each one shows a person at work in the region known for  their particular trade, such as these shown here.
There is a  rather ancient looking automobile to the right of the I Lira design( above right), as Turin is the home of the Fiat motor company,  and in the background is a view of the mountains of  Piemonte. Having recently visited Naples and gazed daily on the wonderful view of Mount Vesuvius across the bay,  it was only today that I noticed in the 20 Lira  stamp shown above left, that in the background is Mount Vesuvius itself.  Surprisingly this Neapolitan  fisherman has not actually appeared on any of my ships, and I think this may be because he looks far too laid back,  leaning against  the ropes of his boat, whereas my "crews" have all been hard at work on various tasks.  I have used him as one of the characters peering out from between the pillars of the Leaning tower of Pisa though,  and he may well reappear in future in another role!

Detail from Leaning Tower of Pisa - see Landmarks on www.rachelmarkwick.co.uk

Tor read and see photos relating to the making of the Leaning Tower of Pisa collage please see my blog post of 10th March 2013.  Please note that the original of this was sold during my last exhibition at Gloucester Guildhall that year, but full size prints are available.

Italian fountains - also on stamps, and appearing in special commissions!

Although we had plenty of maps, it seems as though we got lost on a daily basis in Naples, but  it had its compensations!  On a circuitous route to the docks to catch a ferry, we came across this beautiful fountain, the Immacolatella,otherwise known as the Fountain of the Giant,  and I recognised it  as being on an Italian stamp I'd incorporated into a stamp collage commission last year.
The recipient was being taken on a surprise trip to Naples for a significant birthday, and I included it in the flag of Uganda as the brief was to include significant places and interests in the flag!
The fountain,  designed by Michaelangelo Naccherino and Pietro Bernini in the 17th century and now  stands near the Castel d'Ovo on the coast.  The Fountain of the Giant in Naples  is in a beautiful location, but is suffering from neglect and could certainly do with some TLC and more publicity.

A series of stamps was issued in 1973 depicting fountains including these three in Naples, Rome and Palermo.

Fontana della Immacolatella, or Fountain of the Giant, in Naples

The White Heather - Stamp Collage Original and Prints on show

Currently on show at The Old Passage Arlingham is the exhibition "Between Seeing and Dreaming", featuring work by  artists working in a variety of media including painting, photography, jewellery, sculpture, ceramics and not forgetting my own stamp collages, of which The White Heather is one. At the Old Passage I've included a framed print, and the original can shortly be seen in my new exhibition, Stamping Ground 2, at Gloucester Guildhall from 2nd October,  until 30th October. in the exhibition hall.

The White Heather is a Cornish Lugger built in 1926, originally operating out of Mevagissy and fishing from Falmouth before being laid up on the River Fal for many years.  From 1988 she was running sailing trips from Fowey in Cornwall.  I was pleased to go on board this beautiful old lugger, one of only a dozen still surviving, when she was in Gloucester Docks in 2017 for the bi-annual Tall Ships Festival. We heard that she has sailed to Morocco and Brazil before returning to Britain via the Caribbean, but is now undergoing refitting in the docks.
In this picture I've used stamps, envelopes, thread for the rigging and even words from an old stamp album.